Review of the smaller stock photo sites

steheap

« on: November 26, 2011, 13:21 »

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I was going through my earnings over the past couple of days, and realized that I have grown the number of sites I upload to almost without thinking about it! I'm now up to 25 sites - chosen partly because of perceived earning ability, but also based on how easy they are to deal with. Now that the Thanksgiving turkey has settled in my stomach, I decided to write a blog post which summarizes what I think about each site, what my earnings experience has been, how easy they are to upload to and any quirks I have come across.

I've covered Veer, Zoonar, Deposit Photos, Most Photos, Panther, Yay Micro, Graphic Leftovers, Photodune, iSignStock, Stockfresh and Scanstockphoto. I did include my referral links where they were available, but if you just want to read my thoughts about each site, feel free to go directly to the site if you want. Here is the review: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/03/how-can-i-sell-my-photos-and-make-some-money/

My focus as a stock photographer is more on the travel/nature/still life end of the business, and so my earnings and experiences are based on those types of image, but I'd welcome thoughts from other similar contributors on stock sites that work for them.

Steve


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luissantos84

« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2011, 14:41 »

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Hi Steve, as you now we have similar earnings in terms of totals but looking at your 2011 earnings chart you have in your blog I have found that CanStockPhoto, BigStock and DT are a lot nicier than they are for me, your RPD there must be a lot higher once I see you haven´t got a lot more sales than me

I have tried a few months about PhotoCase but I think they are looking for more artistic pics, what do you have there and how many? in terms of sales I see that they haven´t done much

Panthermedia looks more alive to me, I am with over 200 EUR since I have started there, not much but quite nice once I have spent like 10 hours there uploading perhaps, I wish they improve or create a easier upload for microstock pictures

This past week I have uploaded all my portfolio to a few agencies:
- SuperHug, upload and "its online", they seem to take a while to get them published (as they say), I believe they have no review, got already two sales, they pay 75% and they set my pics on 4$ so 6$ so far, will see how it goes
- iSignstock, after looking at your earnings I decide to get all my portfolio there, I had around 200 files since January bringing 2 pounds/month
- Photokore, don´t know much but I found interesting the all Asia market but have already read some contributors talking about no sales, I got a really fast connection so it took me now like 1 day to upload over 4500 files, it does need a little more work to submit, just adding releases no categories needed etc but now will wait for review, the work is done already so will see
- Zoonar, had like 10 files online, kind of forget about them but again I have seen on your blog about some nice sales so I am now uploading my portfolio and so far no rejections so will see how it works and if the all partners they have can be nice


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steheap

« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2011, 19:04 »

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Hi Luis

Thanks for the extra information about sites that you upload to. If you have any referral links to those new sites, please let me know!

I must be getting a higher income per file, as I only have around 1900 images on the main sites. Some sites go up to 2300 or so, if their standards are lower!

I've tried many times to get some more images on PhotoCase - I have just 5 that were accepted, but they do seem to sell from time to time. I keep trying with "artistic" shots, but I just don't know what they are looking for.

You are doing much better on Panther than me. Do you set the commission to 50% or 33%? Maybe I am being too restrictive and pricing myself out of the market? I only have around 1000 images there, though. I stopped uploading for a time and now it is very hard to work out what is there and what is missing! A big lesson is that once you start uploading, you should keep going otherwise you get in a real mess in terms of what you have where.

Dreamstime is doing well this month as well - $85 so far on 1600 images. I find their "duplicates" policy hard to deal with, but I do try to keep to their rules, but then I see buyers download all my variations - I am sure they would download more if they had more choice!

Steve


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luissantos84

« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2011, 19:56 »

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in PM yes I have them on the lower %, I am at 32% once got a little over 1k files I need to upload more there, too bad their submission but they do have buyers and some nice sales, next month I will update my portfolio there

regarding DT is like you are saying, not easy really, we need to have a lot of patience, I never went over 70$ and quite stagnated for a few month, at the 50$'s this moment


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